Factcheck.org says Joe Carr uses "false logic" in ad claiming Alexander responsbile for immigration crisis.

Using false logic is nothing new for Joe Carr and in a new ad attacking Lamar Alexander for his support of the 2013 Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, using false logic is what Factcheck says Carr does. The ad says Alexander's voting for the act is "responsible" for the current surge in illegal immigration.

First of all, the bill did not even pass.  So, how could Alexander's support of it contribute to the current surge in illegal immigration? His vote made absolutely no change to immigration policy. And, even if it would have passed, it only applied to illegal immigrants who had entered the country prior to 2012.

Also, Carr calls the act "amnesty."  I know many conservatives call anything short of rounding them up and sending them all home, "amnesty" but that is a misuse of the language. Amnesty is a general pardon for an offenses.  When we let Vietnam era draft dodgers who had fled to Canada return to America, that was amnesty. The Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act may not have been a good idea but it was hardly amnesty. 

It provided greater funding for border security, doubling the number of border agents and building 350 more miles of fence on the southern border. After the border was deemed secure, then it would have allow those illegally here prior to 2012 to apply for provisional legal status and then if they met the provisions of the bill they could become citizens after 13 years. Citizenship would not have been automatic.  The alien would have had to learn English and pass the citizenship test just like all other applicants. Each alien would have had to pay a $1,000 "penalty" and $2,000 in fees for the temporary Z visa, pass a background check, and submit proof of employment and fingerprints. Then after getting the initial Z visa, in four years the applicant would have had to pay another fee for an extension of the visa. For a family of four, the total cost would have been about $15,000 and they would have had to pay any back taxes owed.

Actually, I thought was that a pretty reasonable approach. I did not support it simply because I do not trust the current occupant of the White House to follow the law, but in the abstract I thought it made sense. You may not like that plan, but it is no more amnesty than the current situation is de facto "amnesty."  Anyway, it did not pass, so it is false logic to blame the current border surge in illegal immigration on Alexander's support of that bill.

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